All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential hopeful, General Muhammadu Buhari, said today it was evident that President Goodluck Jonathan knows he has not done enough for Nigerians to vote for him again since 2011.
All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential hopeful, General Muhammadu Buhari, said today it was evident that President Goodluck Jonathan knows he has not done enough for Nigerians to vote for him again since 2011.
A statement by APC spokesman Rotimi Fashakin asserted that Mr. Jonathan knows that he has run an exclusive government laden with scandals of grand larcenies in many institutions.
“For the first time, impunity reached all- time high with the famous Fayose-led desecration of the Courts of Justice in Ekiti state under the watchful eyes of security forces,” Fashakin’s statement read.
According to Fashakin General Buhari reiterated that the Jonathan government is the most corrupt in Nigeria’s chequered history and underscored the general’s resolve to forge ahead with a presidential run despite carefully-woven insidious commentaries against him.
“He is hopeful that, with the support of the long-suffering Nigerian people, the APC government under his guardianship shall sweep away the fecklessness of the PDP in the February, 2015 elections.” Fashakin added in the statement.
Full text of the press statement:
The unfortunate riposte from Jonathan’s regime
That the Jonathan government is the most corrupt in Nigeria’s chequered history has never been in doubt, what has become, clearly intolerable, is the predilection of this administration for shameful revisionism, denial of the truth and unpatriotic divisiveness.
Whilst it is not our desire to bandy words with this administration that is steeped on perilous leadership of the Nation, we feel a deep sense of responsibility to present the facts again for the perusal of discerning Nigerian People.
On Wednesday, 15th October, 2014, while declaring his intention (before a mammoth crowd of faithful Nigerian supporters), General Muhammadu Buhari (GMB) stated, inter-alia: “The economy continues to deteriorate while the Government continues to announce fantastic growth figures but manufacturing is down, agriculture is down, commerce is down
Simply because you sell oil and steal part of the money does not entitle you to cook figures and announce phantom economic growth when all the major indices namely, Employment, Manufacturing, Farming, Trading are demonstrably on the decline. “
Expectedly, the Goodluck Jonathan presidency, rather than giving truthful response to the message, lunged at the messenger in the most indecent tradition that has become second nature to the operatives of the communication of the administration.
In order to support its nebulous claim of the improvement of the economy, the Jonathan Presidency stated: “As is well known, available figures, statistics and ratings show that the Nigerian economy has consistently maintained an unprecedented growth rate of 6-7% under the Jonathan administration. They also show that the Nigerian economy is now the leading economy in Africa and the 26th largest in the world with a gross domestic product of over $500 billion per annum.” Contrary to these bogus claims by this administration, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), in its June 12, 2013 online release, stated that 112 million Nigerians (representing 67% of the entire population) live below poverty line! Earlier, in its ‘May 2013 Nigeria Economic Report’, the World Bank said the number of Nigerians living in poverty was increasing too rapidly.
The relevant question that readily comes up is, of what use is gloating about with seemingly fantastic economic growth statistics when two-third of the Nation’s populating is reeling in grinding poverty? It is an incontrovertible fact that the reason for the manifested youth restiveness in the national space is exacerbated by blatant inability of the Jonathan regime to improve on Job creation. The mindset of the Jonathan Presidency is encapsulated in the famous statement made by President Goodluck Jonathan himself in Davos, Switzerland (earlier in the year) wherein he stated that his administration’s backward integration has made a Nigerian the richest man in Africa! It did not make a difference to this President that the grim fact is that there is inequitable distribution of the Nation’s wealth. It is this fact that came into the fore when five Power generating assets and ten power distributing assets were sold to known cronies in another scandalous privatization deal. Meanwhile, majority of Nigerians have not had improved supply of electricity to their homes and business offices. All these are manifestations of an administration that is unwilling to show sensitivity to the plight of the teeming population of the Nigerian people.
Indeed, the denial of fact, as a character trait of Jonathan government, should not surprise anyone, as the Jonathan administration has abundant capacity for mendacity, chicanery and revisionism. In April 2014, when the news broke that over two hundred young Nigerian female children had been abducted by unconscionable beings, the first reaction of the Jonathan regime was to make spirited attempts to conceal the fact of this abduction. It took a seventeen year old Pakistani children’s rights activist, Malala Yousafzai, after more than three months, before President Goodluck Jonathan agreed to meet the Parents of the abducted girls. In a related matter, on February 25, 2014, gunmen violated the serenity of the Federal Government College, Buni Yadi, Yobe state. After the dust settled, twenty nine male students were killed and their female counterparts abducted. These dead young Nigerians were not even considered worthy of respect with a minute silence at the centenary celebration that opened about twenty four hours later. Till date, President GoodluckJonathan has not thought it worthy to visit the school! Undoubtedly, this administration has a huge capacity for stymieing the truth, in the vain attempts at casting delusions on the minds of the people.
On January 21, 2013, as part of the administration’s agricultural reforms, 3.5 million Jobs and 20 million metric tonnes of food to domestic supply was promised to take effect by 2015. May we remind this government that 2015 is just two months away and the reality that Nigerians grapple with in their daily pursuit is a far cry from the utterly garrulous deception!
GMB stated “Quality education for development, modernity and social mobility” as part of the priorities his soon-to-happen administration shall pursue with relentless fervour. But the Jonathan Presidency derisively castigated this by stating: “All that General Buhari promises to do are already being done by the Jonathan Administration to the acclaim of ordinary Nigerians and there is no evidence before Nigerians that the APC leader and his acolytes can do them better. “
Details of the June 2014 West Africa Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) showed only 529,425 candidates (representing 31.28%) out of 1.7million candidates who wrote the examination obtained credits in five subjects and above, including English Language and Mathematics. Whilst the performance of Nigerian students’ performance has been very dismal in the last three years (under Dr. Goodluck Jonathan’s administration), Ghanaian students dominated the three positions at the International awards for the best candidates in the five member countries of WAEC. But this should not surprise anyone because whilst the Jonathan administration has consistently spent less than 13% of the yearly budget on education (a far cry from the UNICEF’s recommendation of 26%), Ghana spent 31% of its 2013 budget on Education!
Jonathan’s Presidency had stated with obvious delusory intent: “His most uncharitable and inexcusable accusation against the present administration was that election rigging continues to thrive in Nigeria.” In the two governorship elections conducted this year (2014), the Military and other security forces were deployed in a manner to compromise the election. On the eve of the June 22, 2014 Ekiti governorship election, over two hundred leaders of the opposition All Progressive Congress were removed from circulation in Gestapo-style manner by the over 36,000 security forces deployed to the state for a ‘do or die’ electoral battle. Buoyed by the success of its infernal impunity, over 70,000 security forces were also deployed to Osun state for the governorship election on August 9, 2014, but the steadfastness of the people saved the day. In its February 2014 report, the National Human Rights’ Commission branded INEC, Police and the Judiciary as election criminals! The questions that need to be asked are: First, what section of the electoral laws makes it mandatory for elections to be held under curfew? Second, why is the PDP administration of President Goodluck Jonathan always insistent in using the Military for election duties when sections 214, 215 and 216 of the Nigerian Constitution clearly prescribe that the maintenance of internal security is fundamentally vested in the Nigeria Police Force?
Without a doubt, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan knows he has not done enough to convince the same Nigerians, who were gored (in 2011) into believing that his presidency would impart positively on the Nation, to vote for him again. He knows that he has run an exclusive government with scandals of grand larcenies in many institutions of government. For the first time, impunity reached all- time high with the famous Fayose-led desecration of the Courts of Justice in Ekiti state under the watchful eyes of security forces. He knows that the portent of GMB’s entry into the Presidential contest shall automatically stymie his desire for a second term.
Finally, GMB is unfazed by the carefully-woven insidious commentaries against him. He remains focused on the greater task of assuaging the pains inflicted on the Nigerian people by the pestilence of PDP’s fifteen-year rule of the Nigerian state. He is hopeful that, with the support of the long-suffering Nigerian people, the APC government under his guardianship shall sweep away the fecklessness of the PDP in the February, 2015 elections.
God bless the Federal republic of Nigeria.
Rotimi Fashakin (Engr.)
For: General Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR